Oh, hey, it's Disgaea 4 all over again!

Emizel's hair is TOUGH. And the nose options are all bad, so I decided to go with no nose and just drew it on.

EMIZEL IN THE BLOOD CHAMBER‼️‼️

So, that bit from episode 5 where Emizel shows up at the sex motel to find Arthur, Deacon, and Shilo. And he assumes they all fucked, which isn't even unfair. Honestly, there's also some Fascinating implications in the way he's laughing about the idea of it just being Arthur and Deacon that fucked but he kind of goes quiet when he sees Shilo there too (particularly given that this happens before he finds out they're brothers. Also, off topic, but did they Have to have the brothers talk in The Sex Motel. Feels like a bit of a weird venue for this conversation, fellas.) but okay aside from All Of This.

To me, the most important part is just like. That Emizel Never gets this assumption corrected. So he's operating for the rest of the campaign under the assumption that Arthur and Shilo just kinda fucked one time I guess. And I never have any kinda way to bring that up because that specific detail is like a really niche thing to remember, but like. It's so Emizel to make that assumption, never ask about it, and just run with it. And it wouldn't even be unreasonable to do that either with that situation. I like to chew on it. Particularly in combination with imagining that he probably sensed some stranger danger vibes from Arthur early on, because the mixed signals of going to an apartment with some guy, not fucking, and then the day after, he Apparently fucks your identical twin are. Quite honestly insane.

OHHHHH WHOA. YEAH. HANG ON. i'd never thought about this before but you're so right. this is delicious. especially because iirc, emizel's first impression of shilo was 'literal sickly victorian boy', which seems like it opens up a huge chasm between shilo & anything that could be considered scandalously modern, like sex. so imo emizel's intended punchline with that joke was 'haha, you're gay and that's embarrassing, but not unexpected because you look like you robbed a hot topic', but what shut him the fuck up was a complete subversion of his already-formed mental categorization of shilo as Untouchable. as not even in the same realm of being as himself and arthur, who are brutally human. suddenly he has to recontextualize -- shilo is touchable, shilo is gay (???), shilo had a threesome with two men who are much older than him, and in positions of power over him. shilo looks relatively chill with this fact.

With all this said. Literally everything you said about Shilo is so right, though i haven't read Lolita yet (emphasis on yet. I have needed to for Far too long). I'd just like to add in that I think there's also certain themes on how Emizel ties into this as a "bad kid".

Because both Edward and Arthur actually express concerns at different points about how maybe Emizel shouldn't be around Shilo, about how he might corrupt his brother or how it's not safe for Shilo to be around him (despite the fact that Shilo is actually one of the only people Emizel will go actively out of his way to protect but that's verging into ship thoughts. Which arent relevant right now)

This can also tie into how I dont think enough people realize that it is Also a massive violation with weird implications when Edward forces Emizel to fight his sire for entertainment only to rip his teeth and tongue out (actually, the wider theme of Edward forcibly attempting to silence Emizel specifically is an aspect of this i hadn't thought of until now) and just dump him in an alleyway in changed clothes.

Honestly, Emizel and Shilo kind of strike me as a sort of "good victim/bad victim" dichotomy, which makes it Very fun that even the goodwill Shilo gets from his innocence runs out eventually (only when he retaliates against the man that preyed on him, of course), because there will never be a truly perfect victim in the eyes of wider society.

And this isnt even getting into how I think Arthur ties into this really well as a sort of representation of the flaws with the idea of "stranger danger" and how the people most likely to abuse youth are the people who have authority over them. I'm gonna send that in a second ask cause this one is already long, but. It makes me sickkk.

ohhh the good victim/bad victim dichotomy is so accurate to them. i think you hit the nail on the head with how emizel is seen by the people around him as a destructive force in and of himself. shilo's imperfections are more subtle and self-concealing, so he is seen as inherently more deserving of protection than emizel, while emizel's imperfections are plainly visible, so even though he and shilo experience remarkably similar violations, emizel is left to fend for himself.

it's also interesting to me how the cast themselves react to this during the hunger games finale. the second they realize that the arena is a combat encounter, they all agree that it should be emizel in there rather than shilo. & granted, emizel is much more geared toward combat than shilo is, but it's also i think in part a kneejerk 'oh, shilo belongs here, navigating the social hierarchy safely, while it's okay for emizel to face that kind of violence because he's already a Bad Kid who's dealt with it before'. the protection of the innocent child necessarily begetting the further traumatizing of the already traumatized child.

i also think the fact that emizel fighting gabriel for edward's entertainment is easily dismissed because emizel is constantly trying to kill him before that, so it's framed as just What Emizel Would Do Anyway. but the difference, again, is consent! the voyeurism, the lack of autonomy -- those supersede emizel's oft-credited 'violent nature' to make this a violation of his autonomy and personhood rather than just another encounter between the two.

& of course as you mentioned edward ripping out his tongue and teeth afterward. he cannot fight back anymore and he cannot tell anyone what's happened. he doesn't even have the evidence of his own blood on his clothes. perhaps this is too abstract but it reminds me of some of the stats cited in john krakauer's missoula, about how rape kits are taken after a sexual assault and then left to rot, so any evidence of the assault is both contained, safely inaccessible the victim, and kept in a vault of impotence until they expire and are no longer admissible in court. emizel's got nothing to prove what happened and no way to speak about it, and by the time he finds any evidence, the chances that edward will have managed to spin public opinion are almost insurmountable. i agree w you that there's a lot to be said about edward trying to silence emizel -- possibly because he recognizes the victimhood in him, and is attempting to preserve the outsider vision of him as somehow incapable of being victimized because he's also capable of perpetrating violence.

emizel's previous trauma and history of violence due to neglect being used to justify violence (and sexual violence) against him is a really interesting look at how a historical lack of safety nets and community can fuck someone over again and again and again, while shilo, coming from a position of being completely sheltered & with great privilege within vampire society, is consistently (if ineffectually) shielded from trauma and violence, even if it's just the consequences of his own actions.

Propaganda:

Emizel (Just Roll With It: The Suckening):

Emizel was submitted without propaganda.

Usidore the Blue, Wizard of the 12th Realm of Ephysiyies, Master of Light and Shadow, Manipulator of Magical Delights, Devourer of Chaos, Champion of the Great Halls of Terr'akkas, the elves know him as Fi’ang Yalok, the dwarfs know him as Zoenen Hoogstandjes, and he is known in the Northeast as Gaismunēnas Meistar, and there may be other secret names you do not know yet (Hello from the Magic Tavern):